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‘The Haakonsen Faktor’ – first double halfpipe?

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By now you’ll have seen all the hullabaloo about Red Bull’s double halfpipe competition, held recently at Aspen. It’s another interesting concept from the energy giant, and one that’s seemingly gone down well with riders and viewers alike.

However, someone happily reminded us that this isn’t, as some have claimed, the first time this format has been tried. We recently got sent this clip from Volcom‘s Terje-centric movie The Haakonsen Faktor, released back in 1999. The quality’s not great, but you can clearly see a young Shaun White bounding between the transitions of two separate pipes. Yes, that really is El Blanco – back when Tomahawks, Olympic medals, chat show couches and scooter endorsement deals were still a long, long way off. Back then, it seems, he was more into snowskates…

Not to take anything away from Red Bull – their version is a giant step up from this pre-millenial bash at the idea – but if they’re wanting to do something truly groundbreaking then we guess they’re going to have to keep looking.

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